“Matthew Dirst is Associate Professor of Music at the Moores School, where he teaches courses in music history, performance practice, and directs the Moores School Collegium Musicum. He is also the founding Artistic Director of Ars Lyrica Houston , a period-instrument ensemble that specializes in Baroque chamber and dramatic works. His academic degrees include a PhD in musicology from Stanford University, MM in organ and Master of Sacred Music degrees from Southern Methodist University, and a BM from the University of Illinois. …”

“ … Tsalka was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree from Tel-Aviv University, he continued studies in Germany and Italy. In 2001, he received a piano solo diploma from the Scuola Superiore Internazionale del Trio di Trieste. From 2002 to 2008, he resided in Philadelphia and studied at Temple University fortepiano and chamber music with Lambert Orkis, modern piano and piano duo with Harvey Wedeen, and harpsichord, clavichord and positive organ with Joyce Lindorff. Tsalka holds three degrees from that institution: a master’s degree in chamber music/accompanying, a master’s degree in harpsichord performance and a doctorate in piano performance. …”

"Nancy Metzger pursued musical studies at Syracuse University, the University of Oregon, and California State University, Sacramento. Her organ teachers include David N. Johnson, Arthur Poister, John Hamilton and Richard Purvis. She studied harpsichord in Berkeley, CA with Laurette Goldberg. She has also studied at the North German Summer Organ Academy and the Trio Sonnerie Chamber Music Course in England.

She holds a master's degree in music history, and was for several years a church musician, independent studio teacher and college music professor.

Mrs. Metzger has performed public recitals on both harpsichord and organ throughout the USA and abroad.

Mrs. Metzger is widely known as the author of Harpsichord Technique: A Guide to Expressivity. First published in 1989, the 2nd edition of this manual of baroque performance practice became available in 1998. This useful guide for all keyboardists is now used by individuals, libraries and teachers throughout the U. S. and in other English speaking countries. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

“Nickolai Sheikov began studying the piano at the age of nine in his native Bulgaria. He received professional training at the L. Pipkov National School of Music in Sofia. Having arrived in Boston in 1999, Nickolai continued his studies at New England Conservatory of Music. There, after recognizing his unique love for the Baroque music, Nickolai turned his devotion entirely to the harpsichord, which he studied with John Gibbons - his true mentor. Nickolai was also a participant in a number of master classes, both in Europe and USA, with Gustav Leonhard, Menno van Delft and Jaap Schröder (chamber music) amongst others.
At the dawn of his performing career, Nickolai’s performances have been critically acclaimed. Following the 2009 inauguration solo recital at Boston’s new concert series Music at First Church, the Boston Musical Intelligencer described Nickolai as a “noteworthy” and “an excellent harpsichordist”.

Nickolai appears as a soloist, chamber musician and continuo player at numerous music venues in major cities in the USA.“

“That's the only requirement for membership in this society of friends of the organ. We are an international organization that seeks members from all levels of interest in the organ. Whether you simply listen enthusiastically or you play, build, or study the organ as an avocation or profession, the Organ Historical Society invites you to join. The Society promotes a widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding through collection, preservation, and publication of historical information, and through recordings and public concerts. ..

From a modest beginning in 1956, the Society has grown steadily in membership and is now an international group of music lovers, musicians, organbuilders, historians, and scholars. This growth, which has spread to other countries, is evidence that a significant step forward in musical culture and historical scholarship has been fostered since the Society's founding.

The Organ Historical Society is dedicated to documenting and preserving historic pipe organs and to raising public awareness and appreciation of America's organ heritage.“

"Pedro Persone was born in Tietê, SP, Brazil, and started his harpsichord study at the Conservatório Musical "Dr. Carlos de Campos", Tatuí, SP, with Maria José Carrasqueira. He studied privately with Roberto de Regina in Rio de Janeiro, and received his Bachelor degree in Harpsichord at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) in the class of Dr. Helena Jank. In Europe, he attended courses with Felipe Nabuco-Silvestre (Brazil/Portugal), Christophe Rousset (France), and Rinaldo Alessandrini (Italy). In 1977 Mr. Persone studied with Huguette Dreyfus at the Ecole Nationale de Musique de Bobigny, France; in 1988 with Jacques Ogg, at the Academie voor Oude Muziek, Amsterdam. With a scholarship from the Fundação Vitae, he attended the "Primer Curso de Música Barroca Ciudad de Segovia" in the fortepiano class of Patrick Cohen (Fance). He is the fortepianist of the "Klassisch!" duo (with the soprano Andrea Kaiser). There is no other active performer of Fortepiano besides Persone in Brazil. As teacher, he has worked at the Festival de Londrina, Oficina de Música de Curitiba, Festivais de Artes de Itu, and is the professor of harpsichord, chamber music, and thoroughbass at the Conservatório Dramático e Musical "Dr. Carlos de Campos", Tatui. In 1996, he received his Master of Musical Arts from UNICAMP, with research o­n unmeasured works. In 2000, with a scholarship from CAPES, Persone began a doctorate program (D.M.A.) in Historical Performance o­n the Harpsichord and the Fortepiano at Boston University with Professor Mark Kroll, continuing now under the orientation of Professor Peter Sykes."

“He has appeared in recital at conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society, the Organ Historical Society, American Institute of Organbuilders, International Society of Organbuilders, at the Library of Congress, Boston Early Music Festival, Aston Magna Festival, New England Bach Festival, Portland Chamber Music Festival, New Hampshire Music Festival, and with Ensemble Project Ars Nova, The King’s Noyse, Musica Antiqua Köln, and throughout the United States, including an appearance in Boston’s Jordan Hall as a featured soloist (Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto) in the Bank of Boston Emerging Artists Celebrity Series. He is frequently heard on the nationally syndicated radio program “Pipedreams.” Recent appearances include an all-Bach inaugural recital on a new organ built by Fritz Noack for the Langholtskirkja in Reykjavik, Iceland, Bach’s Goldberg Variations for the Renaissance and Baroque Society in Pittsburgh, Manuel de Falla's Harpsichord Concerto with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, and the Schumann Piano Quintet on original instruments with the Van Swieten Quartet. In March 2004 he was given the honor of performing the dedication recital on the newly restored 1800 Tannenberg two-manual organ in Old Salem, North Carolina, featured on the nationally broadcast televsion show “CBS Sunday Morning.” He was a member of the continuo team for the Boston Early Music Festival opera productions of Cavalli's Ercole Amante, Lully's Thésée, and Conradi’s Ariadne, and appears regularly in concert and on recordings with Boston Baroque. ..“

"Well known in the New York area, Rebecca Pechefsky has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and the eighteenth-century Morris-Jumel Mansion, where she is co-director of the early-music series Music at
Morris-Jumel. Outside New York she has been heard at the Boston Early Music Festival and in the concert series of the San Diego Harpsichord Society; the Harpsichord Center (Pasadena and Brentwood, California); the Miami Bach Society; the Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and the Beeville Concert Association in Beeville, Texas.

A frequent performer at the American Festival of Microtonal Music, she can be heard on its recent compact discs Early and Odysseus (by Johnny Reinhard). For Quill Classics she has recorded a recital of works by Brunnemüller, Bach, and La Guerre
(QC 1001), the complete harpsichord music of François d’Agincour (QC 1002 and 1004), and Bach and His Circle (QC 1006). With Andrew Bolotowsky she has recorded sonatas by Johann Ludwig Krebs for Baroque flute and harpsichord (QC
1003) and flute works by J. S. Bach (also with cellist David Bakamjian; QC 1008, forthcoming). With Brooklyn Baroque, of which she is a founding member (with Bolotowsky and Bakamjian), she can be heard on Northern Lights (QC 1005), a
program of German Baroque works, and The Pleasures of the French (QC 1007), a recital of eighteenth-century French works. (For more information on Brooklyn Baroque, click on the button to the left.) Her recording of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, was released in May 2009. Her recordings have been played across the United States on NPR stations, and Bach and His Circle won the 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Award for best Classical Solo Album.

Also committed to new music, Ms. Pechefsky has premiered works by Mary Inwood, Graham Lynch, Frank J. Oteri, Louis Pelosi, Johnny Reinhard, and Ben Yarmolinsky. In March, she gave the world premiere of Graham Lynch’s prizewinning Petenera at the Aliénor Competition in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Currently organist at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Glendale, Queens, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Erik Ryding, with whom she has coauthored Bruno Walter: A World
Elsewhere, winner of an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. ...“

"Trevor Stephenson was born in 1959 in Kansas City, Missouri. He began piano studies at age ten, and at twelve decided upon a life in music. Following degrees in piano performance from the University of Missouri and University of Illinois, he received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Historical Performance of Eighteenth-Century Music from Cornell University. In 1990 he moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where, with Norman Sheppard, he began rebuilding and customizing a series of keyboard instruments ranging from Italian Renaissance harpsichords to Victorian pianos. In 1994 he founded the Light & Shadow concert and recording company in 1994 and has issued twelve recordings on that label. Since 2004 he has also served as harpsichordist and Artistic Director of the Madison Bach Musicians. He tours throughout the United States regularly giving concerts, lectures, and masterclasses. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)